If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

WASHINGTON — Credit rating agency Standard & Poor's on Friday downgraded the United States' credit rating first time in the history of the ratings.
The credit rating agency said that it is cutting the country's top AAA rating by one notch to AA-plus. The credit agency said that it is making the move because the deficit reduction plan passed by Congress on Tuesday did not go far enough to stabilize the country's debt situation.

snip

S&P said that in addition to the downgrade, it is issuing a negative outlook, meaning that there was a chance it will lower the rating further within the next two years. It said such a downgrade to AA would occur if the agency sees less reductions in spending than Congress and the administration have agreed to make, higher interest rates or new fiscal pressures during this period.

S&P first put the government on notice in April that a downgrade was possible unless Congress and the administration came up with a credible long-term deficit reduction plan and avoided a default on the country's debt.

Nope. That's what the DU types are trying to claim, but Wall Street is pretty much in Obama's pocket. This is apolitical, based solely on the numbers.

The political brinksmanship of recent months highlights what we see as America’s governance and policymaking becoming less stable, less effective, and less predictable than what we previously believed. The statutory debt ceiling and the threat of default have become political bargaining chips in the debate over fiscal policy. Despite this year’s wide-ranging debate, in our view, the differences between political parties have proven to be extraordinarily difficult to bridge, and, as we see it, the resulting agreement fell well short of the comprehensive fiscal consolidation program that some proponents had envisaged until quite recently. Republicans and Democrats have only been able to agree to relatively modest savings on discretionary spending while delegating to the Select Committee decisions on more comprehensive measures. It appears that for now, new revenues have dropped down on the menu of policy options. In addition, the plan envisions only minor policy changes on Medicare and little change in other entitlements, the containment of which we and most other independent observers regard as key to long-term fiscal sustainability.

This whole mess could have been avoided if the Dems had submitted a budget for FY 2011 instead of trying to mitigate the losses at the polls they saw coming.

That would have required putting country over politics, never going to happen. The Republicans did submit plans and took the political heat from the dems. Look at how Paul Ryan and Eric Cantor were demonized.

‎" To the world you are just one more person, but to a rescued pet, you are the world."

The political brinksmanship of recent months highlights what we see as America’s governance and policymaking becoming less stable, less effective, and less predictable than what we previously believed. The statutory debt ceiling and the threat of default have become political bargaining chips in the debate over fiscal policy. Despite this year’s wide-ranging debate, in our view, the differences between political parties have proven to be extraordinarily difficult to bridge, and, as we see it, the resulting agreement fell well short of the comprehensive fiscal consolidation program that some proponents had envisaged until quite recently. Republicans and Democrats have only been able to agree to relatively modest savings on discretionary spending while delegating to the Select Committee decisions on more comprehensive measures. It appears that for now, new revenues have dropped down on the menu of policy options. In addition, the plan envisions only minor policy changes on Medicare and little change in other entitlements, the containment of which we and most other independent observers regard as key to long-term fiscal sustainability.

Sounds political to me.

If you are defining it as disfunctional political processes, then yes, the entire political system is breaking down. If you are claiming that S&P is acting on partisan motives, then it is not. I substituted apolitical to mean non-partisan.

Originally Posted by txradioguy

This whole mess could have been avoided if the Dems had submitted a budget for FY 2011 instead of trying to mitigate the losses at the polls they saw coming.

That would have required putting country over politics, never going to happen. The Republicans did submit plans and took the political heat from the dems. Look at how Paul Ryan and Eric Cantor were demonized.

Ryan had to sit through an embarassing public tantrum by the President of which he was made the focus. Yet the Dems and Obama are portrayed as the adults in the room.

Read the history of Woodrow Wilson and The league of Nations, and you will see that there was a very similar history.
In the case of The league of Nations about half the senate was in favor; half opposed. But it took 2/3rds to get it done, so nothing happened.
Obama has a similar problem. It still takes 2/3rds to of the senate to make meaningful headway and Obama, like Wilson, simply cannot deliver.